Lego has come under fire after a toy on their online store was branded as a "back-of-the-bus-window-licker."
The toy, part of their "Mixels" product line, is called Turg, and was referred to as an "an experiment that’s gone very, very wrong."
"Window licker" is a known derogatory term for people diagnosed with learning disabilities.
@LEGO_Group your new mixel description is so offensive! 'Part back of the bus window licker' #EpicFail pic.twitter.com/rQ4rhKzGWZ— Shelley Warren (@ShelleyWarren20) June 8, 2015
Lego has since altered the original description, removing the "window licker" line.
Lego calls new character Turg 'window licker' http://t.co/7ZzOkSxMyi As a disabled person, thought I was beyond insults but this is awful.— Rosemary Frazer (@RosemaryFrazer) June 10, 2015
Lorraine responds to @LEGO_Group describing new charcter Turg as a 'window licker': http://t.co/bAlKOzLQ4E pic.twitter.com/wM6iI294K7— Mencap UK Charity (@mencap_charity) June 10, 2015
Fiona Wright, Lego's vice president for the UK and Ireland, issued the following statement:
Lego Mixels aim is to inspire creativity using quirky fictional characters to help children express their imaginations. We have very high expectations of our products. This also includes the text we use to describe them towards consumers.
We are sorry that wording which could be considered offensive has been used, as this has not been our intention at all. As an immediate result of the input we have received, the product description for the Mixels character Turg has been changed on our website Lego.com.
We have looked at our processes to make sure this does not happen again.